Brittany Delaney

she/her

Education: Bachelor of Science in communication sciences and disorders (December 2010)

Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Missouri-Columbia

McNair Project: Clinical Measurement of Voice and Speech (2009)

Mentor: Linda Hoag, Ph.D.

This paper explores clinical measurement of voice and speech. Clinical measurement of voice and speech is an essential component of voice assessment and treatment. I gained experience with various pieces of voice analysis equipment and software, including the audio recording equipment and Computerized Speech Lab (KayPENTAX Model 4500) hardware and software including Real-Time Pitch, Voice Range Profile, Real Time Spectrogram, and Multi-Dimensional Voice Program to measure aspects of acoustic characteristics. These characteristics involve various measurers of fundamental frequency and intensity. The Computerized Speech Lab allows a clinician to collect and analyze live samples or digitally recorded samples by loading pre-recorded samples onto the software. I had the opportunity to study normal variation in voice and speech by performing multiple measurements on different samples of my own voice and comparing measurements across these samples. Towards the end of the summer experience, I gained not only greater knowledge of how to perform voice and speech analysis, but also a broader understanding of measurements that have been found to be clinically useful in the assessment of speech and voice disorders. I was given the chance to become familiar with, explore, and use the Computerized Speech Lab hardware and software, which provides a variety of measurements and displays of speech and voice samples. I would consider this very beneficial for undergraduate students who want to be in the Speech-Language Pathology profession.